If you’re travelling from Vancouver Island to the mainland this weekend, you’ll want to give yourself extra time.

The Tsawwassen Mills mall officially opened on Wednesday.

The new facility is expected to generate increased traffic this weekend, which will coincide with Thanksgiving.

There was a lot of excitement surrounding the opening – some people lined up as early as 2:30 a.m. to be the first ones inside the 1.2-million square foot mall.

The facility will offer a shopping shuttle that provides free roundtrip transportation from the Tsawwassen ferry terminal to Tsawwassen Mills. The shuttle will coordinate with the Nanaimo and Victoria ferry sailing times.

BC Ferries anticipates Thursday, Friday and Saturday morning will be busier than usual.

The company will add 56 additional sailings on the busy Tsawwassen-Swartz Bay route starting Oct. 6 to Oct 11.

You can find the holiday schedule here.